All of a sudden it seems that we are rolling out new services left right and center. The latest offer from Glass Obelisk is a hosted, online project management and organisation tool called Gosplan.

For those not familiar with the origins of the word, ‘Gosplan’ it is the abreviation of Gosudarstvennyi Komitet po Planirovaniyu a mouthful to be sure. Gosplan was an organisation dedicated to rolling out five year plans for the USSR. In a centrally planned economy these targets dictated the production aims and distribution of resources throughout the economy.

The link then for our offering is quite clear. The service is designed to help you organise, plan and coordinate projects and tasks. Whether that be just personally for yourself, or within an organisation, Gosplan is designed to help you maximise your time.

We have been using the service for a while internally. It helps us coordinate projects between staff members, and assign tasks which can be chalked-off when completed.

I will keep this teaser announcement brief, more information will follow and the site itself is going to be getting some major additions over the coming weeks. For more information about Gosplan, visit its website.

This isn’t going to be the traditional Flash v plain text debate. It’s nothing like that. Simply, what is going to help your site most: a nice accessible page or a site which utilises all the latest technologies (you know, throw in some Flash here, some Javascript there, perhaps even some Silverlight)?

Now my personal viewpoint on it probably runs in defiance of many standard-touting web developers, but I would say both. Sure, use flashy new mediums, even if they come at the cost of maximum usability but only if it suits.

I will try and give you an example. Recently I redesigned the GOtxt.com.au site and whilst I anguished about whether or not to include some Javascript and opt for a design for higher resolutions I finally decided to go with it. Why? Because that website is aimed at a market and demographic which are much more likely to support those features. I still put effort into making it usable for other users, but it was not such an overriding concern compared to a corporate site.

That said I personally have a thing against 100% Flash websites. To be frank, my relationships with any that I have come across is less than cordial. There comes a point where Flash turns from useful and pretty into a vulgar obstruction that needs to be surgically removed from a website. I call that point, that line in the sand, “text”. If the body of your website, the main text of your website, is rendered in Flash then I will begin to come out in hives. They may be beautifully rendered, animated hives, but they will still not impress me.

Flash impares copying text. If I want to print out a site, I tend to select the text, chuck it into a document and print from there. Flash prevents me doing that in an easy manner.

Flash sites are often accompanied by another of my pet hates: uncontrollable music. Sure, ambient music can work in some cases, but if I can’t turn it off and have it stay off (even when I come back to visit next week) then I will again be less than cheerful.

The motto? Really good designs are great. I love them. I’d prefer if great design coincided with great usability and accesibility, but that isn’t always the case. Make compromises cautiously, look specifically at the demographic your website caters to and what they’re likely to feel. I like Flash, but I think like all mediums it has its limits. No one should view it as the utopian solution to web design - at least not in its current form, it is still too limited.

Almost everyone has a mobile these days. Period. These little devices are ultra portable and are increasingly capable of much more than just voice calls. PDAs, smartphones, even modern conventional phones will support an array of features that make them an attractive and versatile device.

Staying in touch has never been easier. You can immediately get in contact with most people by calling them, sending them an email or shooting off a text message. Glass Obelisk’s new service hopes to make this process even easier.

GOtxt.com.au is a new offering we’ve recently launched that allows anyone to send text messages for absolutely no charge. Registration is simple (it’s also free!) and will then allow users to send up to 5 free messages a day, or opt to sign up for a low cost messaging plan for as low as 10cents an SMS. We suggest you visit the site and test it out for yourself - all of our staff use it to communicate, so we thought we’d release it to the world to use.

Business users need not worry. We offer custom developed SMS solutions that cater directly to your needs. If you are interested then please contact us. We will arrange a time to come and explain the system to you, and explore how it can be uniquely implemented to increase productiviy. The possibilities range from marketing to client management to internal communications - it is a very versatile medium, which we are excited to be able to offer clients.

Common queries:
Is GOtxt really free? Yes it is. We won’t charge you anything for the free personal service
Can I send messages internationally? By all means! Go ahead.
Where should I direct my appreciation? Surprisingly a common question! We get a warm fuzzy feeling by providing useful services. Just by using it and recommending it to your friends you’re making us feel good.